A Sideshaft Corn Grinder Engine

Randy Racine

| May/June 1999

3012 S. Catherine Street, Lansing, Michigan 48911-1808

I bought the corn grinder at the Michigan Flywheelers Show. It
was missing all its internal parts.

I had two choices: plant flowers in it or make an engine. I
decided an engine would be more fun. I used the cylinder from an
old headless air compressor. It had a
13/4' bore. I cut the end off the
cylinder and made a new head out of aluminum. I used brass to make
a spacer between the head and cylinder. Next I used a 10 mm
sparkplug and put it in the brass spacer. Steel bolts were used to
make the valves and brass for valve guides. The brass connecting
rod is from a different compressor. I made a new wrist pin and
bushings. The crankshaft was made from ? steel. It has a 2? stroke.
A pair of old needle bearings were used for the mains. The gears
are Volkswagen, the muffler is from a brass lubricator and a bell
from an old telephone. The flywheel came off an old post drill. The
gas tank was made from a brass pipe. The carburetor is a gas cock
(with a needle valve) and the top off a candle holder. Scrap brass
was used to make the governor. The propane holder was the bottom of
a blow torch. The base from scrap steel.

It runs nicely on gas or propane and it has very little
friction. It turns over 40 times between firing.

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